Stop the privatisation of our NHS

View over Stoud

Last month I covered the press release from the Stroud Against the Cuts regarding the legal case - see here - well below is the info in the latest leaflet which has been going out in towns across Gloucerstershire. The leaflet is in preparation for the upcoming legal case regarding the future of many of Gloucestershire's health services. For background info you can see my editing of a film of the talk by Prof Wendy Savage here and the bit with solicitor Kate Kaye here saying why we need to act.


Gloucestershire’s health services - nine community hospitals, ten health clinics, and other county-wide services - have been scheduled for transfer out of the NHS. Social Enterprise Trust (SET) or Community Interest Companies like Gloucestershire Care Services CIC (GCS-CIC), which has been proposed to take over the services, are not an alternative to the break up and privatisation of the NHS - they are part of that process. A legal case in Gloucestershire, supported by local anti-cuts groups challenges the claim of management that there was no alternative to social enterprise. It puts the option of keeping staff and services in the NHS back on the table, if management want to consider it. Elsewhere campaigns have successfully defended NHS services. The legal case can buy time for us to campaign together against social enterprise, but even if successful our NHS will be under sustained attack. The proposed Health & Social Care Bill removes all barriers to privatisation of the NHS. Say no to an American-style market-based health system.

We must fight to Keep Our NHS Public

Cheltenham Against Cuts & Gloucester Against Cuts:
cheltenhamagainstcuts@gmail.com • Tel: 07771162308
cheltenhamagainstcuts.wordpress.com
Forest Against The Cuts:
Tel: Diana Gash 01594 839441 or Pete Stanway 01452 760235
Stroud Against the Cuts: www.stroudagainstcuts.co.uk
contact@stroudagainstcuts.co.uk • Tel: Chris Moore 07810732379

NHS PRIVATISATION SCANDAL
Social Enterprise Myth & Reality
 
Myth: GCS-CIC is not about privatisation, it is a non-profit organisation.

Reality: GCS-CIC will be a private limited company, run as a business and will have to make a surplus. After 3 years (possibly 5 years) or sooner the private sector can compete for contracts. In Hull private companies stepped in months after the SET contract was signed. Award-winning SET Central Surrey Health lost out on a £500 million contract to a Virgin owned company, in it’s first bid against the private sector.

Myth: GCS-CIC will continue the NHS ethos and be free at the point of delivery. 

Reality: Staff and services will leave the NHS, services will be more fragmented and a national service undermined. GCS-CIC will have to survive in an increasingly competitive environment. Services will not be judged on the basis of need and quality but whether they will be successful in the market, before being opened to the private sector. A two-tier private/public system will grow.

Myth: NHS terms and conditions will be preserved for staff.

Reality: Protection under the TUPE (transfer of pay and conditions) system is much weaker than staying in the NHS. Unison has obtained a Department of Health letter confirming SET staff will be given new contracts that will be hard to protect. Cornwall Council broke promises to transferred NHS staff on pay and pensions.

Myth: GCS-CIC will be democratic and accountable to staff and the local community.

Reality: Decisions about the awarding of multi-million pound contracts will probably be made behind closed doors. Staff and public have never been asked if they want to transfer to GCS-CIC. The board of GCS-CIC will have 5 members from a list proposed by GCS-CIC. Staff will each have one 1p share, but there are questions about who will hold the majority and what right will staff have
to vote on a takeover.

Myth: If successful it will lead to the immediate privatisation of services.

Reality: If successful, NHS Gloucestershire management would have a choice between two options: either to tender services or keep them in the NHS. They can legally keep the services in the NHS and do not have to open services up to private sector competition. Integration with an NHS trust locally or nationally is one route, and as has happened elsewhere, it could be possible to set up a new NHS trust; there is no legal barrier to this (it would be a matter of Department of Health approval).

What You Can Do: Get in touch with your local anti-cuts group  and tell us what you think. Make your views heard: send letters to local newspapers and elected representatives, contact your GP, consultant or health support group (a template ‘open letter’ is available on the websites overleaf), and tell your friends, neighbours and colleagues. If you are a member of NHS staff email: helpthenhs@hotmail.co.uk (a supporter of the campaign who is a member of staff and union member) and if not already a member, join a trade union and get active in your branch.

Pensions march today

Today there will be a march and rally meeting at Shire Hall Gloucester at 1.00pm marching to Gloucester Park for a rally at 2.00pm. Speakers will include Paul Kenny General Secretary of the GMB Britain’s third largest Trade Union and Nina Franklin the NUT National President.


Public sector workers are being asked to pay an extra £3bn a year.....this is the same amount as the banker’s bonus tax that raised almost the same amount. Why are workers having to pay a contribution to reducing a deficit they did nothing to cause? Unions want proper negotiations and have done fair deals before. As a UNISON member I fully support the day of action for pensions justice - a chance to stand up for decent pensions and tell ministers to start negotiating.

"The Government is complaining about a one day strike, we are complaining about their stealing our pensions for ever. The Tories economic philosophy only prospers through inequality - join us on the March." John Marjoram, Stroud Mayor 

“Most public sector workers are modestly paid, they have had their pay frozen, while the price of basics is flying up. The Government claims that public sector pensions are ‘gold-plated’, when in fact most of our members are women whose average pension is less than £3000.  Our members overwhelmingly voted to support strike action even though many have never been on strike before. They are taking action because they know the proposed changes are not fair.” Simon Cormack, UNISON

If you don't have much time to explore this site, there is a a useful 2 minute summary video here: http://pensionsjustice.org.uk/the_attack_on_pensions/

Today will see the first mass strike in the UK for four decades. 17 unions, including the biggest ones Unite, UCU, Unison, various teaching unions and PCS, have balloted to strike on pension reform which will see an estimated 3 million off work. Demonstrations and pickets are planned across the country - see http://www.n30strike.org for a complete list. Amongst the strikers are 18,000 Border Agency workers are expected to strike leaving the government having to employ sinister private security firm Serco to take over for a day. Even the National Union of Probation Officers voted to join the strike four-to-one. For more information on the pensions issue see: http://pensionsjustice.org.uk/

Click read more to see; "Pensions Justice: Why I Support the November 30th TUC Day of Action." by John Pemberthy, Secretary Gloucestershire Districts Trades Council.

Impact of disability benefit cuts

View of Ebley Mill from Randwick

Reductions in local government budgets will leave many rural residents disadvantaged, says a report by the Rural Services Network, which represents 93 rural councils and a host of other public rural service providers. The full document can be downloaded by clicking here while a brief report can be found here. However in this blog I wanted to highlight the planned cuts to Disability Benefits - this is an issue I've covered many times on this blog - and it is clear many disabled people face the double whammy of cuts to their benefits but also rural services. Click on read more for info taken from campaign material circulated locally.

I must also mention Health Minister Simon Burns who compared 38 degrees supporters to zombies!! I have to say that was pretty shocking - see video clip and petition here.

Video out: Threat to our NHS

On this video there are highlights of a talk by Professor Wendy Savage from Keep Our NHS Public with info about the local situation in Gloucestershire. The talk was organised by Stroud Against the Cuts on 7th November at the British School in Stroud. Apols for the quality and editing in places - I hope it still gives a flavour of the evening. Matt Archibald who filmed the event hopes to add more videos to his YouTube Channel in the very near future.

Take Action! For a year health minister Andrew Lansley has been refusing to publish a civil service report on the risks he's taking with the NHS. Now the Information Commissioner has ordered him to publish it. But he could still keep it hidden for another month – until after more key votes have taken place. 38 degrees have launched an email campaign - if the report on the NHS is released immediately, it could persuade key members of the House of Lords to stand up to the government. Please join me in taking action at: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-secret-report

Strong cross-party call for scrutiny of NHS by our County Council

Well last night at an Extraordinary Stroud District Council meeting we discussed a motion calling for proper scrutiny of the changes in the NHS to set up a social enterprise. First that then the Judicial Review, more about the debate plus some of the press coverage.....a bit of a long blog this morning and rather hasty - hope it makes sense!

Photo: from Matt Archibald - see his collection from march here.

It was a Green Party and Labour Party motion that in the hurry was, in my view, not worded as best as it could have been -  I suspect also there was not an understanding of the strong cross-party concerns about the changes to the NHS and the lack of scrutiny around those changes.

Anyhow it was a couple of hours of not very impressive democracy - virtually no one seemed able to defend the social enterprise - a couple of Tories made some noises but it seemed clear that all were happy to see more scrutiny of the changes. However in attempts to water down the language of the motion the Tories put forward an amendment that made no sense. I called for the solicitor to rule on it but amazingly it was legal - it therefore meant the Tories had to put another amendment to improve it - sadly this also made little sense!!!!! By this time we were all getting a little frustrated....

Anyhow other attempts at amendments were made then a Tory, Gordon Craig made a bold move...he only made very slight changes to the original amendment that retained the key line: "We demand proper scrutiny by the Health Community and Care Scrutiny Committee so that assumptions being made can be tested and alternative proposals can be considered."

This got through unanimously - well done Gordon. With a unanimous result it will have much more impact on Steve Macmillan (chair of the health scrutiny) than if we had won on a narrow vote. However Gordon was very wrong when he claimed that our NHS was not efficient - see report here.

Judicial Review?

Anyway a quick aside - my video of the Stroud Against The Cuts 'Save Our NHS' march can be seen at: http://youtu.be/g7s0vTzuNeA You can also see more re the Judicial Review here.

Cllr John Marjoram and Caroline Molloy of Stroud Against the Cuts have now had discussions with the solicitors. The current state of play is that the transfer of 3000 Primary Care Trust staff out of the NHS and into what would be the largest "Community Interest Company" in the country is off whilst NHS Gloucestershire management assesses their legal position.

In the mean time I understand that NHS Gloucestershire has given us an absolute guarantee that they won't transfer anyone or anything out of the NHS without giving us 3 clear days notice. Whilst we still hope they will see sense and halt a process no-one wants, if or when they do give such notice, the claimant intends to lodge a formal Judicial Review application, which will be backed by any necessary injunctions to halt the transfer.

I understand we have had legal opinion that we have a good case that they cannot just quietly hand thousands of health workers out of the NHS and over to a handpicked private limited company. 

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas has joined the debate - she said to the Glos press: "By drafting in private companies to deliver essential healthcare, the county risks undermining the very principles on which the NHS is built."

Keep checking the Stroud Against The Cuts website for the latest on the transfer and the legal situation. Finally a fighting fund has been established - for although we have obtained Legal Aid, the initial cost to get Michael Lloyd’s case into the  into the Courts will be in the region of £5000 plus. If we win the case we will get the money back. Please send cheques to John Marjoram, saying if you want your money returned if we win. Then he will pass on to the treasurer. Send to 8, Castle St Stroud, Glos GL5 2HP cheques to read, “Keep Gloucestershire’s NHS public”.

Last nights debate

One issue I was very disappointed that was not answered by the Tories was around why we have got to this place with no scrutiny of the changes. Legislation requires our County Council to ensure that its' scrutiny committee has the power to scrutinise the planning, provision and operation of health services. They have these powers.

Yet it appears that despite the most significant changes ever to our NHS, they have not used these powers. Cllr Stephen McMillan, Chair of that Scrutiny committee, replied to my concerns in a letter stating that since September 2010 the County Scrutiny committee has been sent reports  about the development of the social enterprise but that they only discussed the matter at a meeting in September this year. 

Well that September meeting was only due to public uproar. And when they discussed it, they appear to only have spoken to the Chief Execs in charge of pushing through the changes. Where was the chance for an alternative view? One person likened this to a judge disallowing any evidence from the defence then inviting the jury who are all in his or her pocket to reach a decision.

Indeed in my first meeting in our Strategic Overview and Scrutiny Committee in June I also raised serious concerns as this Council had not received a report from our representative on the County Scrutiny committee regarding the changes. I have since learnt that out of 7 previous Scrutiny meetings we have only had reports at three - I wasn't on that Committee then but it seems those did not cover the changes.

So I still don't know why our County scrutiny committee failed to scrutinise. Next week we have a scrutiny meeting at which I hope to raise the issue again to see if some light can be shed.  I've also written again to Cllr Stephen McMillan.

Surrey example

I have already noted the very recent case of Central Surrey Health - this has been the official flag bearer for social enterprise in health. Frances Maude and David Cameron gave them the first ever Big Society award last November. We have just seen Central Surrey Health attempt to win a competitively tendered NHS contract. They failed. The £500m contract went to a private company. Many are now wondering if Surrey Health can retain it's core business. If this award winner can't what hope is there for others?

Does this not add weight to those who are suspicious that the government plans to break up the NHS and allow private corporations in through the backdoor?

We have also seen news in the last week or so that patient care is under threat at more than 60 NHS hospitals which are “on the brink of financial collapse” because of costly private finance initiative schemes (see here). Companies who run such PFI schemes boast profit margins of up to 71 per cent on the projects! Privatisation is just not good for our health service.....OK that was an understatement....

Anyway click on read more to see some of the questions we want the County Scrutiny to consider and some of the press links. Another blog tomorrow on other items from the Council meeting but now I need coffee and must get to work....

Stroud Against the Cuts: save our NHS march

Todays march and protest in Stroud to save the NHS saw over 500 people - my video is publishing now so hopefully will be available first thing in the morning.  We are top story on
BBC Gloucestershire's website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-15046892

And the following report went out on BBC Gloucestershire TV news - you can even see a glimpse of me videoing at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OohDEeogcBI

Here's the campaigns press release below - but we can all be proud in this area that it is Michael Lloyd (pictured below), a local resident, former member of the Ruscombe Brook Action Group and former Randwick Wap Mayor who is the one leading the battle for the Judicial Review:

Over 500 people attended a demonstration in Stroud today to protest against plans to take local hospitals and community health services across Gloucestershire out of the NHS, and into a ‘Community Interest Company’ which is being badged a ‘social enterprise’.

The crowd, with shouts of ‘Whose NHS?  Our NHS!’, ‘The NHS is not for Sale’ and ‘Social Enterprise – No way!  We Demand Our Say!” wound through central Stroud, before listening to speeches outside Stroud's Subscription Rooms about how the plans are being fought both through legal action and through community and union action.

Caroline Molloy of Stroud Against the Cuts said “We’ve told them that they are breaking the law if they just quietly hand our NHS over to an unaccountable social enterprise. Our legal advice is that we've got a very strong case and we're prepared to fight this all the way, if that's what it takes to stop them.“

Demonstrators heard that Stroud Against the Cuts were backing a legal case which has been launched by Stroud resident Michael Lloyd, to stop the transfer of over 3000 NHS health staff out of the NHS, which is due to take place on 1st October.  John Marjoram, Stroud’s Mayor, David Drew, Stroud’s former Labour MP and Tanya Palmer of Unison South West all launched impassioned pleas for a public NHS, publicly owned and accountable. Chris Moore of Stroud Against the Cuts pointed to the example of Sentral Surrey Health, the first big health social enterprise, which has recently lost out on a contract to Assura Medical, a private healthcare company owned by Virgin Healthcare.

Stroud Against the Cuts has launched a fundraising appeal to ask people to contribute to the community portion of the legal costs.  Cheques made payable to ‘Keep Gloucestershire’s NHS Public’ can be sent to Bernice Boss, Treasurer, Keep Gloucetershire’s NHS Public, c/o Stroud Against the Cuts, The Exchange, Brick Row, Stroud, GL5 1DF.

Save Our NHS - Stroud meeting

Wednesday 31st 7-7.30pm at the Subscription Rooms in Stroud there will be the 'Save our NHS' meeting that will include a UNISON speaker and our MP. It looks set to be very interesting. Meanwhile below is the text from our local Green Party leaflet that we have been handing out over the weekend.

In 2006 3,000 people marched to save Stroud Maternity Hospital but we lost other key services like Weavers Croft. It is vital that these changes do not go-ahead. Please join the meeting and voice any concerns.See copy of my latest email to our MP here.

What’s happening to the NHS?

The sell-off of the NHS started under the Thatcher era with cleaning, catering and portering. We got MRSA! It was continued under Blair with ‘outsourcing’ of clinical services, hospital building and management. It is now known that billions of pounds have been lost to the NHS through inefficient PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects. Now under Cameron/Clegg the trickle has become a torrent with the NHS ‘reconfigured’ from the top down as a ‘service buyer’ rather than a ‘service provider’.

Privatisation pushes costs up….

Private companies earn money for their shareholders, directors and advertising to win more ‘customers’. The extra costs will come from your taxes. Private companies ‘cherry pick’ easier, more profitable treatment, leaving the complex or time consuming treatments of the elderly, obese or those with mental health needs to the public sector – a two-tier system is created.

Our NHS is efficient…..

A recent study showed our NHS to be the second most efficient in the world, far more efficient than the American system that Cameron is trying to copy.

You have seen what can happen….

The collapse of Southern Cross Care Homes shows what can happen when essential services are left to the private sector. They can be asset stripped and go bankrupt. The poor, young and old will be most vulnerable if the local hospital goes bust.

A broken promise….

The Conservatives promised before the election there wouldn’t be another top-down re-organisation of the NHS. We now have the largest top-down re-organisation of the health service since it was started in 1948. The re-organisation is due to cost at least £3billion and cause years of chaos. We need the NHS to be left to do what it does best – treat patients!

What’s proposed for Stroud?

It is proposed that our general hospital and nearly all other NHS services in Gloucestershire be taken out of NHS management and be managed by a so-called ‘Community Interest Company’.  3,000 staff currently working for the NHS would be transferred to this new company. These changes are being pushed through incredibly fast:

·      Why has there been practically no consultation with staff (as they are expected to run it)?
·      Why is there is no indication how ‘the community’ (you and me) will be able to exert our ‘interest’ in this company? How will there be accountability to patients?
·      Even if transferred staff keep their employment rights, what about any new staff employed by the company?
·      Will the company be able to be taken over or sold?
·      Why are these changes being proposed – what is wrong with the present service?

The Green Party believes the NHS should be:

·      Publicly owned and run for the benefit of patients, not shareholders – our health should not be treated as a market;
·      Free at the point of use – abolish existing charges for prescriptions, eye tests and dental treatment and ensure NHS chiropody is widely available;
·      Provide free social care to the elderly – if the Scots can do it so can we in England and Wales. This would cost about £3bn in 2011 – about the same as the current re-organisation! It would also create 120,000 jobs.
·      Accessible, local community health centres - providing a wide range of services, including out of hours care, and as an additional tier of healthcare rather than a replacement for your GP.
·      Focus more on preventing ill-health - including tackling unhealthy lifestyles and environmental pollution.
·      Patients should have choice, but not phoney choice – most of us simply want good treatment at our local hospital.
·     Treat patients with dignity – patients have both rights and responsibilities, they are not customers who can come and go.
·      We support social enterprise as an alternative to private enterprise – not as back door privatisation of public services.

We are losing £18bn every year to tax havens

Tax havens - many of them British - are robbing the UK and developing countries alike of billions of pounds in government revenue every year.  Last month a new report by War on Want, civil service union PCS and the Tax Justice Network calculates that the UK exchequer loses up to £18bn in revenue annually to tax havens, while developing countries are deprived of up to 10 times that sum every year. Caroline Lucas MP was at the launch - it is extraordinary how little noise other parties are making about this key issue.

See the report here. See also my 6 videos of the excellent talk re Tax Havens in Stroud earlier this year here.

What a summer: Norway, East Africa, Riots and financial collapse

Oh dear what a summer. It is hard to keep up with so much shocking and depressing news.... 

Norway. I was in Norway for a family celebration just after the awful events there - it was very moving to attend the memorial's following the horrific acts. Over 30,000 people in Bergen and four or more times that in Oslo plus many vigils in towns across the country.

Photos: Bergen- three photos of the vigil and march taken during my recent stay there

I cannot put words to the horror of it all - but I also cannot not express anger at some of the news reporting. Before the smoke even cleared the finger was being pointed at Al-Qaeda or one of its offshoots. Fox News were particularly bad - while The Sun called it Norway's 9/11 and name-checked Al-Qaeda. Even when the Norwegian press revealed that the killer was an 'ethnic Norwegian' pundits quickly raised the prospect of a brainwashed convert to Islam.

Since then Breivik is being painted as 'insane' or 'sick' - interestingly when jihadists commit an outrage there isn't usually such a rush to let their ideology off the hook. I don't believe we can dismiss his actions as those of a 'lone crazy' - there is too much at stake. In a time of economic crisis such ideas are dangerous.

East Africa famine. Oh my and what terrible times there - it was great to read in the local press of folks raising money to try and ease some of the suffering - go to Farmers Market tomorrow in Stroud for their stall. We must not forget that this famine was far from unavoidable. Of course it is debatable as to whether the drought was caused by human activity but that aside, the impact of western foreign policy certainly has played a big part. That region is rich with resources like gold, platinum and oil yet there is all this suffering. Developing nations have been forced to adopt neoliberal policies, opening up their markets to western multinationals while banning subsidies for their own producers.

SchNEWS write: "A trite solution to the 'African problem' would be to spend the money currently devoted to bombing the region on aid (UK has offered £52 million to relieve famine while the bombing of Libya has cost at least £200 million). Yet this view reinforces the idea that Africa is dependent on the west and ignores the root cause of the majority of the region's troubles. Western countries have spent decades propping up dictators, imposing free market 'reforms', bombing rebels, bribing officials and flogging military equipment. The aim of these policies wasn't to support rebuilding a continent ravaged by colonial powers and proxy wars, but merely to protect and further western 'interests' whether they be preferential access to resources, securing lucrative defence and infrastructure contracts, promoting stability (predictability) or holding back development. If these rich countries simply stopped enforcing foreign policy goals on Africa, the continent may stand a chance of healing itself. The west is just as instrumental in the oppression of ordinary Africans as it was in the days of colonies and empires, just in a less overtly racist manner."

UK Riots. The charity I work for has an office in Barton Street. It was shocking to hear there were riots there and indeed across the nation. Words again fail. As Monbiot tweeted it is too early to try and force meaning out of them - agree - although as this Independent article notes - care costs. There are no easy answers. What are the underlying causes of this terrifying breakdown in law and order? Cameron in 2006, as opposition leader, spoke about the need to adopt a new approach to integrating a marginalised underclass into normal society. He talked of the sort of low-level antisocial behaviour that escalated so horrifically this week and argued that "we'll never get the answers right unless we understand what's gone wrong". Yet now the PM seems more interested in draconian gimmicks than understanding what went wrong.

On a different tack there have been many comments on politicians 'vandalism' - perhaps not quite the same thing! See Nick Clegg's history of vandalism here and Camerons' here - plus comedy writer's letter to Cameron's parents here.

Financial collapse. The US outlook is worse than 3 months ago and that was bad - are these the throes of death or an unbearable burden of debt - while Europe seems to lurch daily from one crisis to the next with today French banks - last month I blogged on Michael Moore's film about capitalism and the threat to the Euro - well you can see Stroud's Molly Scott Cato's views here and here on what needs to be done.

Hope! But I can't leave blog readers with all that - I've just read an inspiring article in the latest Permaculture magazine about Polly Higgins who is creating laws to save the earth. See her website here.

NHS: still possible to save

At the end of July Greens joined the Stroud Against the cuts protest regarding the threats to our NHS - see below the 5 reasons outlined by the local campaign. 

The health secretary recently announced that in addition to all the other changes, £1bn worth of NHS services is to be opened up to competition. Why, why, why are we playing with the NHS when it is already one of the most efficient health care systems in the world?? See report showing that here. It can only be ideological reasons - see my recent letter to press here.

Worse still are the allegations like the favours to 'Tory' hospital in Bath - see here - a Government quango has ordered health chiefs across two counties to send more patients to a private hospital which is owned by two major donors to the Conservative Party!

My union, UNISON, have a good article that shows why we should worry about social enterprises for the NHS - see here. Neil Carmichael's column in the SNJ is concerning as he seems to not understand the risks or the huge costs in making these wholly unnecessary and damaging changes to the NHS. Greens have organised a public meeting to which Neil has been invited - it looks set to be 31st August in Stroud with an excellent speaker from UNISON. Click read more to see more.

Glos Libraries on BBC Politics: politicians cannot be above the law

I was forwarded the link below to the BBC Politics West show earlier today - there is a good piece that opens with the question about who should be making the decisions - councils or courts. It looks at Glos libraries and the Dursey Training Unit - both on hold - the libraries due to court action and the centre due to GCC rethinking. A great interview with Demelza for the library campaign and Chris Pockett in Dursley plus two interviews with Public Interest Lawyers. See more here on earlier blog re Judicial Review.

It also showed GCC Leader Hawthorne being interviewed on BBC Radio Glos as well as a 1 to 1 and described him as being "vexed". His arguments sounded weak particularly when the show finished with the arguments by Chelt MP Martin Horwood - he was interviewed in the studio and was 100% in support of the libraries Judicial Review saying that if GCC had got it right in the first place in relation to the 1964 Act, equalities and regarding consultation this would not have happened. He said the laws were made by politicians, and therefore politicians should respect them. Thanks to Martin and others for challenging these cuts. Click on 51 minutes into the show and watch for about 8 minutes:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012bqtm/The_Politics_Show_West_10_07_2011/

Stroud Greens support for public workers' strike

Stroud District Green Party has expressed support for this week's public-sector workers' strike. The income gap in Britain is growing - we should not be about transferring wealth from the poor to the rich. I hope the strike on the 30th will draw attention to this large scale government attack on vulnerable people.

The proposed reforms will mean workers will pay more to get less, and come at a time when millions of public sector workers are facing a two-year pay freeze and hundreds of thousands are expected to lose their jobs. Britain's independent financial watchdog the National Audit Office found that public sector pensions were affordable and that changes under the last Labour government to increase the pension age for new staff and to raise contributions also reduced the burden on the taxpayer.


John Marjoram, for Stroud District Green Party, said: "The government's attempts to demonise hard-working people in the public sector have been disgraceful. Changes to pensions should be negotiated and not imposed from above by a government unwilling to make its friends in the banks and big business pay for the mess they have made of Britain's economy. Workers in the public sector have seen their salaries drop in real terms after years of pay freezes and inflation. To tell them now that their pensions are being raided as well is a slap in the face."

The Green Party supports the rights of workers to strike if they feel that their pay and conditions are under threat. For a fairly balanced view on the pensions see here.

Squatting rights threat: criminalising vulnerable people

"Only a truly uncivilised government would make it illegal to stay in empty buildings, while making people homeless." Ellie Mae O'Hagan

I haven't yet got into this tweeting thing but have managed to occasionally check out other tweets and this quote was one that caught my eye. This week the government has announced a short consultation on squatting.

It is no surprise that housing charities like Crisis and Shelter are against this move. We are in the midst of a housing crisis in which rents are increasing, people are struggling to get mortgages and housing benefit is being savaged. Here in Stroud we are told it could mean a further 500 people made homeless - can this really be true?!! See previous blog here. Almost 40% of homeless people resort to squatting at some point, and of these more than half have been to prison, 20% are alcohol-dependent and more than 30% have mental health problems.

Squatting is not some middle-class drop-outs game. A large proportion of squatters are very vulnerable people who are squatting because they don't have another choice. This law would be criminalising them. It's counter-productive. It's not going to address the underlying problems that these people face ie a lack of housing.

Groups representing squatters say precise numbers are hard to establish but that the government's estimate of 20,000 squatters is likely to be a significant underestimate.

Meanwhile, as Greens have pointed out repeatedly, 870,000 homes lie empty - and for that matter there's enough empty commercial property to create 420,000 new homes although many of those sites are needed for employment. SchNEWS argue that: "Far from being a social menace - squatting is a positive short-term solution to homelessness, requiring initiative and responsibility. It's free of government cost and management. To make it illegal right now is both stupid and inhumane could at best be described as foolish, at worst inhumane."

Enforcing the possible new laws will also cost - police, courts - and where will the folk go - most likely they will then claim housing benefit.

Let us not forget the law already provides virtually instant eviction for squatters who try a family home say while they are on holiday - this is provided by clauses allowing 'displaced residential occupiers' and 'protected intending occupiers' to force entry if their homes are occupied.

This challenge to squatting makes no sense.

Report finds 'major problems' with home care system

Poppy field near Cirencester

A new inquiry has found that the care of older people in their homes is so poor that their human rights are being overlooked. See BBC report here. I blogged about the Anchor 'Grey Pride' petition here - this is yet another example about why we need a Minister for Older People. It is shocking and outrageous that this report has revealed such neglect - the report comes on top of other reports that also show how poor we are at looking after the older members of our communities.

In the last two weeks I have had cause to help two family members who have gone into hospital - one locally - it has not been an easy experience but staff have been respectful and caring. However it is clear they are very stretched for time - calls at the weekend to Gloucester Royal went unanswered - I made several attempts ringing for over 20 minutes each time and when I visited the ward several times this week the poor nurses seemed very understaffed to deal with all the patients. It is plainly not the right time to be spending billions on reorganisation when we need to invest in existing services.


The concern is also that we are loading yet more onto carers at home - last week was Carers Week - it is estimated there are 6.4 million carers in the UK who face cuts to services and benefits. This is despite the fact that carers who look after relatives or friends are saving the nation £119bn a year - or almost as much as the entire cost of the NHS, according to the latest calculation by researchers. This figure has gone up almost 40% since 2007, when the value of carers was put at £87bn.

The ageing population is making caring a fact of life for every family. Increasing numbers look set to be pushed to breaking point – forced out of work and into poverty, ill-health and isolation. Very worrying times but I also hear many people saying this cannot be allowed to happen. The cuts that are proposed go too deep and too fast. For Glos Carers see: www.carersgloucestershire.org.uk/

Library closures on hold

Well I've just heard the good news - library closures have been stopped so that courts can look at the legality of the closures. See below the Public Interest Lawyers press release. Many of us have long argued that the County failed miserably with it's consultation process and failed to take account of many aspects when it put in place this programme of cuts. Indeed you can see now the results of their consultation which have been obtained via Freedom of Information - see here. As the campaign group say: "How can GCC claim they have ‘listened’ to the public when they are charging ahead with implementing these, clearly, deeply unpopular and feared unworkable plans?"

This court action will be a chance for all factors to be considered and by all accounts - I hope it means that cuts to mobile services just announced will now not take place. In the meantime the campaign are still collecting contributions towards the legal challenge. If you wish to donate, details of how you can are on our website here. You can see my letter before Christmas questioning the consultation here and see the Stroud Against the Cuts March video here.

HIGH COURT ISSUES INJUNCTION AGAINST GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL PREVENTING LIBRARY CLOSURES

The High Court today issued an Injunction against Gloucestershire County Council stopping its planned library closures in their tracks. Public Interest lawyers obtained the Injunction as part of the judicial review case being brought on behalf of a Gloucestershire library user opposing the library cuts. The case has the support of a large number of Gloucestershire library users. The Injunction prevents the Council from:

1. Withdrawing funding from any library which it currently funds;
2. Transferring or agreeing to transfer any library building or lease or responsibility
for running any existing library;
3. Transferring or agreeing to transfer any mobile library or other library asset (such as computers, shelving etc.); and
4. Closing or taking any steps to close any library.

The injunction is effective immediately. The Injunction preserves the status-quo to allow the Court to fully review the lawfulness of the Council’s cuts to library provision at a hearing on 7 July 2011. If the challenge is successful, then it will proceed to a full hearing quickly thereafter.

Until today, Gloucestershire County Council was pressing ahead with the library cuts, despite strong public opposition with the county. Mobile libraries, issuing over 100,000 books a year to care homes and children in deprived areas were due to be taken out of action over the next few weeks. The Council wants to reduce the number of libraries with full opening hours from 38 to 9 and to withdraw funding from 10 of those libraries altogether. The scale of the cuts is more than twice the percentage reduction in central government funding.

Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers said as follows: “The High Court has stopped Gloucestershire County Council’s library cuts in their tracks today. It cannot proceed with closures, and must continue to fund libraries, until the legality of these cuts has been properly decided by the Court.”

Daniel Carey, also a solicitor at Public Interest Lawyers, added that: “The Council was in such haste to push these cuts through it couldn’t even wait until the consultation period was over. It has tried to do the same with the court case, but the High Court has today ensured that these cuts will receive the full scrutiny of the law. The Council has very clear statutory duties to provide libraries and these plans breach them.”

Fair Fares Now campaign

I've been meaning to publicise this campaign - see: http://bettertransport.org.uk/fairfares/

We already have some of the most expensive train fares in the world, and each January we are faced with astronomical fare hikes. Now the Government wants to change the rules to make us pay even more. A big shake-up of our railways has been proposed in a high-level report - the good news is that it advocates a fares review and a ‘3-day-a-week’ season tickets to benefit part-time workers - but there are also threats. We could lose some off-peak discounted fares, see staffing cuts and face reductions in service levels for regional railways. The report recommends cost-cutting strategies that could benefit train companies and the Government, but leave passengers out in the cold.

This Government promised us fair fares when they came to power, but they’re now planning the highest fare rises in a generation, and failing to tackle overcrowding.Meanwhile also see my blog on the threat to local buses here.

Protest at the cuts to legal aid

The proposed cuts to Legal Aid will threaten access to justice for millions of people, with legal areas such as medical negligence, employment, immigration, welfare and family law being affected or taken completely out of scope. How can this be right? Access to justice is a cornerstone of democracy and these proposed cuts will be a further blow to the most vulnerable in our society.

Photo: Ruscombe lake

The reforms are designed to cut the £2.1 billion legal aid bill by £350 million within four years and by more than £400 million within a decade. The Law Society says this is "ill-conceived and unfair" and will leave half a million people a year with the prospect of fighting battles without legal representation.

The Bar Council, which represents barristers, said it will actually cost the country up to £350 million a year rather than save it because a rise in "DIY cases" where people represent themselves is likely to clog up the courts.

The Green Party passed an emergency motion earlier this year to challenge the cuts. Joanna Lumley has already joined the campaign and I urge folk to go to the link below to send a letter to Kenneth Clarke. In Gloucestershire the central government cuts to legal aid could affect the challenge re the libraries. Yet I hear the challenge has a very good chance of being won. It is vital it doesn't miss out because the law commission will not fund the whole case.  Meanwhile Cllr Noble seems to have had the library portfolio taken away from her.

Sound Off For Justice (the campaign for the positive reform of Legal Aid) has consulted lawyers and those that will be directly affected by the proposed cuts. They are now proposing alternative reforms to the current system. Importantly these reforms will ensure that the required savings can be made whilst safeguarding the public right to legal support and access to justice. Please send Kenneth Clarke a letter protesting from the campaign website at: http://soundoffforjustice.org/sign-our-letter

Disabled marchers anger at £9bn cuts in welfare support

Congrats to all who join London's biggest ever 'disabled march' to highlight the cuts. Up to 6000 protestors marched to draw attention and challenge the cuts. On the news reports I saw placards with slogans such as “Blame Banks Not Disabled People”, "I didn't chose to be disabled", "Easy Target: cuts to disabled disgraceful" and “Don’t Leave Me Stranded”. See The Guardian report here and see a blog here earlier in the year on The Guardian. See Green Party comment re cuts here and my blog earlier re cuts here.

Pic:  rainbow over Ruscombe

Jaspal Dhani, chief executive of the UK Disabled People’s Council  (UKDPC), said that the government's policies “are not just affecting a minority group of disabled people but the whole disabled community. This is about protecting disabled people’s  futures. It is not just about the cuts taking place today, it is about maintaining rights and independence and promoting an independent living agenda into  the future. Disabled people have fought long and hard over the decades for those  rights and if they lose them now it will take decades to re-establish them.”

One third of working age disabled people already live in poverty, but that figure doesn't account for the higher cost of living they face, so they have a far  lower disposable income than most  people in England.

'Greenest Government Ever' claim is becoming a sick joke

The government's chance of being the "greenest ever" - as the prime minister has claimed - is now "vanishingly remote". Jonathon Porritt, former head of the Sustainable Development Commission and Green Party member, carried out the review which was funded by Friends of the Earth. He examined 75 policies, finding little or no progress in 55 with the 'birds singing' for only 6 policies. See Porritt here and BBC at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13312901

As Porritt says it is "all in all, as close to a nightmare as one can imagine. Especially for the Lib Dems who must take their full share of responsibility for the dereliction that this Report reveals."

Meanwhile report after report shows what could be possible. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for example has just published a report showing that close to 80 percent of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies a new report shows. Yet we see Lib Dems seemingly watering down our own targets - see Stroud blogger and now District councillor, Molly Scott Cato here.

YouTube: today's International Worker's Day march in Stroud

Rather thrown together - but here it is covering today's march through Stroud - also coming in the week some clips of the Whitsehill and Ruscombe Party yesterday and the Randwick Trashon show earlier in the week - am awaiting some pics before I can put together....